Some questions on investing in stocks?

Question

Say I purchase 6896 shares of VitaCube Systems Holdings Inc. for $1.45, totalling ~$10,000. If the share value went up by $0.32, or %22.07 does that mean if I were to sell right now I'd have a net profit of ($10,000 x 1.2207) - $10,000 = $2,207?

Say I was using Ameritrade to manage my investment. If they advertise $9.99 internet equity trade, does that mean I will have a gross profit of $2,207 - 9.99?

Can someone please explain to me about the actual buying and selling process. Using this link: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=PRH I gathered the numbers from above. I'm confused on the open and close numbers. What is the "open" and what is the "close," I thought stocks were continuous. Is there a "time-out" period or something during trading hours where noone can buy or sell?

How do you know what the current price is per share (i.e. every second), is there a free program I can download for this?

Answer 1

Your math is almost correct. You have to pay 9.99 to buy and 9.99 to sell. I use TD Ameritrade.

The market in general opens at 9:30 am and closes at 4:00 pm. There is after hours trading in some securities also.

You can enter an order in one of two ways. 1. at the market or 2. at a fixed price. Sometimes if you enter an order at the market you may be in for a rude surprise. You may not have purchased the stock for what you anticipated. If you enter an order at a fixed price (called a limit order) your order will execute at that price or a better price but never at a worse price.

I believe TD Ameritrade does have other pricing on very low priced shares. I am not certain what that pricing is becuase I normally do not deal in them. I believe it might be on shares trading a less than $1.00.

If you open an account with TD Ameritrade you will have access to the current prices of the stocks bid, ask and last trade. Let me explain bid and ask. Bid is what you can sell the stock for at that instant in time. Ask is what you can buy it for at that instant in time. The prices do change continuously however. By the time you get your order entered which normally takes about 30 to 60 seconds the prices might very well have changed. That is where limit orders come in very handy.

That is one thing I do not particularly like about TD Ameritrade. It does require too much time to enter an order.

Answer 2

You buy 6896 shares for $1.45 per share = $9,999.20 + the Ameritrade fee to buy of $9.99 = $10,009.19 which is your cost basis. You sell for 32 cents higher or $1.77 per share X 6896 shares = $12,205.92 minus the Ameritrade fee to sell of $9.99 = 12,195.93. Profit is net sale price of $12,195.93 minus cost basis of 10,009.19 = profit of $2,186.74. There are many exchanges around the world, some stocks trade on most of them, some on only one exchange. At 4:00pm est. March 1st. when the American Stock Exchange in New York closed the "closing price" was $1.45. The next morning, March 2nd at 9am EST when the American Stock Exchange opened again the "open price" was $1.25. Somewhere in the world the stock traded "after hours."

Answer 3

Actually just the reverse.
Your Gross profit would be $2207 and your net would be $2197
By the way I think you have the $9.99 charge on the purchase as well as the sale so you would have to deduct an additional $10 from these figure.

Answer 4

Ouch that's 18 dollars a day. That's 1/2 my cell phone bill right there.